setup

pip istall xmltodict
import xmltodict
xmltodict.__version__
#  '0.12.0'

parse

echo '<mydocument has="an attribute">
  <and>
    <many>elements</many>
    <many>more elements</many>
  </and>
  <plus a="complex">
    element as well
  </plus>
</mydocument>' > temp.xml
from pprint import pprint
import xmltodict
with open('temp.xml') as fh:
    doc = xmltodict.parse(fh.read())
pprint(doc)
#  OrderedDict([('mydocument',
#                OrderedDict([('@has', 'an attribute'),
#                             ('and',
#                              OrderedDict([('many',
#                                            ['elements', 'more elements'])])),
#                             ('plus',
#                              OrderedDict([('@a', 'complex'),
#                                           ('#text', 'element as well')]))]))])
doc['mydocument']['@has']
#  'an attribute'
doc['mydocument']['and']['many']
#  ['elements', 'more elements']
doc['mydocument']['plus']['@a']
#  'complex'
doc['mydocument']['plus']['#text']
#  'element as well'